Many communication switch and router systems architecture provide redundant communication capabilities. Marconi plc, London, England has announced a redundant system under its BXR 48000 router (trade-mark of Marconi plc).
Prior art systems provide link redundancy in a network element. However, there is no mechanism in the prior art for testing the integrity of control links and the integrity of only control data in a network element. Prior art systems providing link redundancy do not provide a method of switching away from a link because of control path errors without affecting the data path and vice versa.
Further, prior art redundancy systems often do not enable switching between links without switching between control cards.
There is a need for a system and method providing control path switching redundancy that improves upon the prior art systems.